


Dec 18

by dizzy



Series: Crisscolfer Advent 2015 [18]
Category: Glee RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-19
Updated: 2015-12-19
Packaged: 2018-05-07 13:35:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5458337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dizzy/pseuds/dizzy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"An injury temporarily leaves Darren unable to make music...Chris helps him keep his sanity."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dec 18

Darren can feel it the moment his finger breaks. He comes down hard the wrong way on a dance move on set and - snap. 

The next hour is a blur of set medics and a popping a painkiller and having it set and wrapped. He's sent off to have it looked at by the doctor who is so familiar with the cast that he basically knows them all by name, and the schedule shuffled around for the afternoon to accommodate his absence. 

* 

It's not that bad, everyone says. 

It won't keep him from filming, for sure. It won't affect his choreography, as long as he can manage to fall on it again. It won't affect him going into the soundbooth to record. 

Professionally, he's fine. He got off light, they all tell him. A broken finger is nothing. 

But what the fuck do they know. 

* 

"Why are you so pissy?" Chris asks. 

They're eating in - Chris's offer, since Darren's been drowsy on painkillers. 

Darren holds up a finger. It's the middle one, which coincidentally happens to be the bandaged and splinted one. 

Chris rolls his eyes. "Okay, but you realize we've all broken bones at this point." 

"Yeah, but..." Darren sighs. "It's gonna get in the way. Of... stuff." 

Chris narrows his eyes at Darren. "Is this your way of asking me to jerk you off?" 

Darren almost spills the drink he's clumsily holding. "What? No! Unless... that's an offer...?" 

Chris smirks. "It wasn't." 

"... fine." Darren is still a little distracted by that thought. "No, though. I meant music. I can't make music like this. I can't play the piano or my guitar." 

"Oh. Hm." Chris frowns. "Well, it's only a few weeks?" 

Darren's mouth turns down in the most pathetic puppy dog pout. "Four to six." 

"It doesn't usually really take that long," Chris says, because he lives on the edge and apparently plays fast and loose with recommended recovery time for minor injuries. "I bet you'll be back playing in two or three." 

"That's so fucking long, though." Darren drops his head back. 

Chris reaches out and pats his knee. "You'll live. I promise." 

Darren sighs. 

*

Later that night, Darren realizes Chris might have been right about the jerking off thing. He's not so great at managing it left handed and he comes perilously close to texting Chris in the middle of the night to make sure that wasn't a real offer. 

* 

He walks into his trailer two days later to find a neatly gift wrapped package sitting on his couch. 

It doesn't stay a mystery for long, since he can clearly see Chris's handwriting on the label, but the lack of surprise makes it even better when he unwraps it to find a harmonica underneath. 

_Don't need hands for this one._

* 

The second gift arrives six days later. Darren has spent all six of those days inbetween driving everyone on set crazy with his sweet, smooth harmonica stylings.

It's large. Very large. He unwraps it with almost a frown, because what the fuck-

He laughs.

"A tuba?" He says out loud, to no one. "Really?" 

No one answers him, yet somehow he can still imagine with crystal clarity Chris laughing his ass off. 

The tuba stares back at him. It's tarnished and dented, clearly bought used. Very, very used. 

_How about a less portable one?_

Unfortunately for Chris (and everyone else), Darren just takes that as a challenge. 

* 

Chris and Darren bond a lot over the next week. 

Mostly because the entire cast refuses to talk to Chris. 

The tuba mysteriously disappears. 

(Darren doesn't mind, because he has dinner every night with Chris and sometimes those dinners go very late and it turns out he very much likes staying up late with Chris and talking about anything and everything under the sun, and he very _very_ much likes how Chris seems to like it, too.)

* 

Darren isn't expecting another present after that disaster. 

And yet... there one is, sitting in his dressing room. He's only got a week left until he can use his finger in the way fingers are meant to be used (for guitar strumming, of course) but he still feels a flurry of excitement. 

He opens and finds a theremin inside. Unlike the tuba, the theremin appears boxed and brand new. It looks like a little white space ship. He's sort of in love. 

_This one comes with a condition._

The note doesn't say what the condition is. Darren picks up the phone and calls Chris. 

Chris answers on the third ring. 

"So what's the condition?" Darren asks. 

"You have to play it for me," Chris says. "After dinner. When you take me out next week." 

"Well." Darren stares down at it. "You drive a hard bargain." 

"Too hard?" Chris asks. Darren knows him well enough to hear the tremble of nerves in his voice. 

"Didn't say that," Darren answers. "But you might have to come over tonight and help me look up tutorials on youtube, because I have no fucking idea how this thing works. And I also don't want to wait until next week." 

"Oh," Chris says, a smile punched into the single syllable. "Okay, then." 

* 

A broken finger? Everyone was right. 

Not too bad, after all.


End file.
